Person of Interest

Since its debut in September, the vigilante drama “Person of Interest” has been touted by CBS as a dark and moody crime thriller fueled by ominous “Big Brother”-like vibes. What they forget to point out is that it’s also an exercise in unintentional comedy.

Part of the fun of this show comes from watching the almost catatonic performance of co-lead Jim Caviezel, who plays stoic tough guy John Reese with all the emotional range of a fence post. Reese speaks in a whispery, Jack Baueresque tone that is meant to sound cool and/or menacing, but winds up being laugh-worthy. Meanwhile, as each hour unfolds, you observe his sleepy-eyed gaze and start to worry if he’s going to even make it through the episode without a massive dose of Red Bull.

Going into the season, “Person of Interest” was one of the buzzier shows among TV’s new fall crop. Critics were excited by its high-concept approach and pedigree — the pilot script was developed by “Lost” whiz J.J. Abrams and writer Jonathan Nolan (“Memento”).

But so far, the series hasn’t lived up to the hype, instead falling into that niche of shows that are just good enough to make you wish they were better.

“Person of Interest” is pegged to the mysterious doings of Mr. Finch (Michael Emerson of “Lost”), a voyeuristic software billionaire who developed a computer spy program for the government intended to analyze surveillance data and predict terrorist attacks. It was designed to prevent a 9/11-like catastrophe, but Finch discovered that the machine was also forecasting many “irrelevant” crimes among ordinary citizens that were being ignored by the feds.